Washington Post
Thursday, December 8, 2005; Page A15
Behavior Contrasts Studied
Just like boys and girls, male monkeys like to play with toy cars whereas female monkeys prefer dolls, a research project has found.
The discovery is one of many signs of deep-rooted behavioral differences between the sexes that scientists are exploring with the latest tools of genetics and neuroscience.
Researchers have found differences in the structure and functioning of male and female brains -- in humans and animals -- that correlate with different behaviors.
The differences apparently date far back in evolutionary history to the time before humans and monkeys separated from their common ancestor about 25 million years ago, said Gerianne Alexander, a psychologist at Texas A&M University in College Station, who led the research reported in the journal NeuroImage.
In the experiment, researchers put a variety of toys in front of 44 male and 44 female vervets, a breed of small African monkeys, and measured the amount of time they spent with each object.
Like boys, some male monkeys moved a toy car along the ground. Like girls, female monkeys closely inspected a doll's bottom. Males also played with balls while females fancied cooking pots.
WHAT?!
(Female monkeys were also more likely to play with blenders, while male monkeys were more likely to play with golf clubs. Female monkeys tended to drink alcoholic beverages that were pinker in nature, while male monkeys were more likely to drink scotch, whiskey, or domestic beer. Female monkeys tended to chatter after intercourse, while male monkeys often lit cigarettes and turned on the television. Female monkeys, the study found, were virtually unable to drive. Male monkeys were more likely to look gay in those shoes.)
Lynn will disagree with me here, but I'm a little disturbed by how closely the results of this study track societal norms.
